


Runaway

by plummuffins, Xailey



Series: Beta [2]
Category: Marvel, Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Roleplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2014-01-09
Packaged: 2018-01-08 03:53:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1128018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plummuffins/pseuds/plummuffins, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xailey/pseuds/Xailey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The New Year's party was supposed to be happy, but Billy and Loki just find it a reminder of all the bad that has happened the past year.  Part of the Beta universe</p>
            </blockquote>





	Runaway

Loki had sat in the clouds a while, watching his friends and Billy’s parents. He had even walked aimlessly around New York. He knew he should ditch Midgard and seek out someone to help him. Perhaps the All-Mother. But right now he was busy sulking. He was now outside of the warehouse where the After Party was taking place, safely wrapped in shadow. With an easy spell he could see, but not hear, through the walls and watch his friends having their fun, celebrating victory against another one of his mistakes. Watching Billy dance with Teddy.

"Yggdrasil be damned," he snapped loudly, kicking the wall pointlessly. He missing his alter ego for the sake of having someone to speak to. "I am such a fool." Loki sighed, ending the spell and leaning his head against the no longer transparent wall. He was scared, he realized. Scared he really didn’t learn anything after all of this. Scared to leave the people he’d betrayed and helped. He would be lying if he said he didn’t care for each one of them.

With a sigh, he pushed away from the wall, walked away slowly.

Billy needed air. The party was stifling and the tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes weren’t helping. All that time dancing and talking and trying to smile knowing what he was going to do. He didn’t want to be there when Teddy found his message. The shapeshifter was sure to hate him, but at least his feelings would be real. Maybe David would be able to help calm him. David who he had wished luck and sent after his unknowingly ex-boyfriend with the warning that if he hurt Teddy he would scatter his atoms across the universe. As much as he wanted to say love saved the day when he defeated Mother and became the Demiurge he knew that it didn’t matter if Teddy actually loved him, only that he loved Teddy. Which was why he knew he had to leave Teddy, to give him a chance at a real relationship.

Slipping out the door as silently as he could, he took a deep breath of cool night air, not bothering to wipe the tears from his eyes. Looking out ,he noticed a figure slinking away from the building. Taking a closer look he realized he recognized the figure and called out.

"Loki!"

Loki froze, his breath catching in his throat. He didn’t dare turn around, closing his eyes and resisting the urge to zap himself out of the vicinity, knowing the magician could easily follow him. He started walking again, though, hoping that Billy would lose interest in seeing him and return to the party. This was exactly the kind of situation he had been trying to avoid by disappearing earlier.

"Loki wait!" Billy ran after the Asgardian, quickly catching up to him. He placed a hand on Loki’s shoulder from behind to alert him to his presence. "Loki" His voice was small and strained.

He couldn’t keep walking—he knew he should jerk away. Say something cruel to protect himself. But he couldn’t…not when he felt the hand on his shoulder..not when he heard the strain in the mutant’s voice. He spun around and looked at him, regretting it the moment he saw the clear signs that he’d been crying. “Billy,” he frowned, instinctively reaching up to brush his thumb across the magician’s cheek. He inhaled sharply, taking a quick step back from him. “Ah,” a humourless laugh, “you weren’t meant to catch me.”

Billy leaned into the touch though brief, missing it as Loki stepped away. “I” he began, “I didn’t know you were here. What are you doing out here and not in there at the party?”

His face twists into a momentarily pained expression before falling into a blank mask. “I do not..belong. In there.” He gave him an emotionless look. “You should go back inside. Go back to your friends, Billy.”

"I don’t belong in there either." Billy said matter of factly, almost believing his own words, "My friends… It’s probably best they don’t see me for a while. Soon they won’t want to." He wiped his cheek with the back of his hand.

"Oh, Billy," he shook his head slowly. Loki couldn’t help but touch him, cupping the mutant’s cheeks in his hands, running his thumbs along his cheekbones. "You are so good," he breathed. "You are.. _everything_ that I am not.” _Everything I want._ “Tell me why you are crying,” the god murmured, still gently stroking Billy’s cheeks.

As Loki’s hands touched his face the damn broke and he tried to choke back a sob, tears streaming down his face. “But I’m not. That’s, that’s why I had to” he paused to take in a gulp of air, “leave him. Oh god, what have I done? He’s going to hate me forever. He’s—“ Billy could feel the panic begin to set in as he began to feel as though it was hard to breathe.

"Shh," Loki breathed, brushing a lock of hair from Billy’s face. "Hey now, none of that." His own heart constricted at the mutant’s words. He knew who Billy was talking about, he could practically taste the pain in his words. "You know better," he admonished calmly. "Take a deep breath, my friend. You know.. you _know_ he would never hate you.” He attempted to smile. “For the Demiurge, you are remarkably foolish, aren’t you..”

Gulping a lung full of air and slowly letting it back out, Billy tried to calm himself not really succeeding. Without warning he wrapped his arms around Loki and buried his face in his shoulder. “I want to go somewhere, anywhere but here. I want to run away.”

Loki could say in all honestly that he could not remember a time when he had been sought out for comfort—least of all been hugged by someone crying. He wanted nothing more than to calm down Billy. So he wrapped his arms around the upset reality-warper after a moment of hesitation. “Then.. let us run.” He teleported them away, not really thinking about it when they wound up in his apartment—the one he had been staying at when he was casually stalking Billy before the Mother incident. It wasn’t anything special, just a simple flat with an unmistakable chill, not that Loki noticed.

The trickster ran a hand up and down Billy’s back soothingly. “Billy,” he muttered, not sure what to do.

Billy barely registered the change of location, only really noticing as Loki wrapped his arms around him and stroked his back. Right now the god was warm and soft and comforting and that was what he needed right now. The mutant had never been one to suffer in silence, instead preferring to take comfort in the love his friends had for him when things got tough. He hiccuped as he continued to cry and rubbed his wet cheek against Loki’s shoulder.

Loki began to sway them, eyes closed, muttering comforting words in Norse—things his mother would say when he was a child. He pressed a light kiss to the neck of the mutant, tightening his arms around him. “I’m sorry,” he breathed, barely audible. He knew that Billy’s current situation was entirely his fault.

" "t’s not your fault" Billy murmured, "Could we maybe sit down?" He had just sort of noticed where they were, "Not that I want to stop… this" He felt the need to clarify even if he didn’t do the best job and blushed a little as he did so.

Loki chuckled softly and pulled away from Billy, “I don’t have much to rest on. I’ve only my bed.” He motioned to the bed which was mostly surrounded by piles of spell books, the covers neatly made and seemingly unused. 

"That’ll do" he replied, eyeing the books enviously, "Sitting is over rated anyway." He tried to sound as light-hearted as one could when they had been crying. All he wanted was to lay down and not move until the pain went away.

Loki nodded, understanding. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll, uh, get you something to drink.” He walked over to the cupboards and pulled out a cup which he magically filled with a soothing tea. He brought it over to Billy and set it on top of a book pile by the bed.

Billy dropped down on the bed, facing the outside of the bed and curling up in on himself like a child still in the comfort of his mother’s womb. When Loki set the cup down he just stared at it blankly for a moment before propping himself up in a sitting position and taking it. He brought it up to his nose, inhaling its calming sent and feeling its warmth seep through to his hands.

Loki stood for a moment, watching his friend. He sat down next to him on the bed and stared across the room. “It is my fault, you know.” He just let the sentence slip out, dipping his head. “I… never meant to cause you pain.”

Billy took a sip of the tea, thinking for a bit before he spoke, “I don’t blame you.” A pause. “I can’t say I’m happy with what you’ve done, but I don’t blame you.”

Loki shook his head slowly. “I can’t understand that.” He looked at Billy hopelessly, voice barely audible. “Why are you here with me, Billy? When you saw me.. you could have ignored me. You could be with… _anyone_..anyone else right now.” He stood up, looking away, his voice getting more strained. “I’ve ruined _everything_ for you. I am poison. You should _hate_ me.”

Billy set the mug back down on the stack of books, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head that told him not to ruin the books with a cup ring. Leaning over, he grabbed Loki’s hands and dragged him down to sit on the bed with him, intending for the trickster to sit next to him but the angle causing him to be nestled sideways between his legs. “But I want to be here with you.” He sighed, “You aren’t poison and I don’t hate you. I know I should, but I can’t. You may not be able to see it, but you’ve changed. I know your history, hell, I was obsessed with your history for the longest time and I know what you are like. The things you’ve done recently, saving us in New York, teaching me to use my powers, admitting everything in the end, that goes against everything I have learned about you. You are changing, Loki, and you don’t know how to react. I feel as though you need me right now as much as I need you.”

Loki leaned sideways against him, letting out a shaky sigh as the tension slowly left his body. _I will always need you more_ , he thought. “I hope you’re right about me,” the god muttered, doubting himself. Could he really change? His kid self had thought he could..though not until the very end. Loki adjusted himself so that he could wrap his arms around Billy, not caring that the angle was a bit awkward for himself. 

Billy wrapped one arm around Loki, pulling him closer and brought the other to run his fingers through the god’s hair. It helped him forget for a while that he had problems of his own. “I believe you can do it” he murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of Loki’s head.

The trickster god hummed at the touches and kiss, the quiet confidence in Billy’s words pulling at his heart in ways which both terrified and calmed him. After staying like that until his back began to hurt slightly, he pulled away, sitting up from their embrace to look at Billy. Loki brushed his fingers lightly across the magician’s cheek before attempting to smile as much as he could. “Do you..want to sleep here? Or.. I can take you back if you don’t.”

"I would like that" Billy’s mouth widened into a smile. He settled down on the bed so that he was laying back on the pillows and beckoned for Loki to join him.

Loki felt himself let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, laying down curled into Billy, his arm draped across him. “Me, too.”

Billy wrapped his arms around Loki, pulling him close and pulling the bed covers over them. Snuggled close to the warmth the other provided he closed his eyes and began surrendering to sleep.

Loki was so close to Billy, and suddenly he was not tired, watching the mutant’s face as Billy fell into sleep. He couldn’t believe he was actually here..in Billy’s arms when Billy could easily be holding someone else. “Oh Billy,” Loki murmured, hoping not to disturb the magician. “Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> We started this RP shortly after issue 14 came out and I have to say it surprised me how similar to the scene in issue 15 at least the beginning of this is. I guess we somehow knew Loki would be waiting outside the party like the stalker he is. Like last time and always Xailey was Billy and Plum was Loki.


End file.
